Weatherproofing structure for doors



- May 2, D. H. HARNLY WEATHERPROOFING STRUCTURE FOR DOORS Filed April 12, 1937 3 3 j /Z figz ,4)

III,

' ,5557 DAVID H. HARNLY III,

Patented May 2, 1939 UNITED STATES WEATHERPROOFFNG STBUQTURE FOR DOORS David H. Harnly, Chicago, Ill.; Willard It. Matheny administrator of said David H. Harnly, de-

ceased Application April 12, 1937, Serial No. 136,248

3 Claims.

This invention relates to Weather proofing structure for doors, and constitutes an improvement in connection with the weather proofing structure shown in my United States Letters Patent No. 2,106,322.

In my co-pending application, there is disclosed a weather strip that is so mounted that a portion thereof will resiliently project at an angle into a doorway, and that is subjected to deflection instead of compression by the door when the same is closed. When such a weather strip is used upon a door, especially the door of a railway car, there is always some danger of having an outgoing passenger with baggage causing such baggage to strike the weather strip and deflect it outwardly and tearing or damaging the same. In other words, the free edges of the weather strips were not protected.

In accordance with this invention, means are provided for protecting the free edge of the contact portions of such weather strips that preferably also limit the inward deflecting movements thereof and also cooperate with the weather strips to more effectively exclude the weather.

The invention comprises the novel structure and combination of parts hereinafter described and more particularly pointed out and defined in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawing which illustrates a preferred form of this invention and in which similar reference numerals refer to similar features in the different views:

Figure 1 is an elevational view of a door and its frame involving this invention.

Figure 2 is an elevational View of the door frame with the door removed and looking inwardly.

Figure 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken,

upon the line IIIIII of Figure 2, looking in the direction of the arrows.

Figure 4 is an enlarged sectional view taken upon the line IV-IV of Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows.

While the invention is adapted for use with any form of hinged door, such as car doors, automobile doors and the like, it is especially eflicacious in connection with refrigerator doors or doors that usually swell or expand in use due to the moisture that they encounter. For this reason, there has been illustrated a door that may conveniently serve as a refrigerator door, in order to explain the special adaptability of the invention thereto.

In the drawing, the walls I, 2, 3 and 4 of the doorway are shownv bevelled upon their inner surfaces, and the door 5 which is hinged to the wall 2 has bevelled edges of substantially the same slope as the bevels on the walls of the doorway. In the utilization of this invention, the bevelled portion of the door can be made to fit very loosely in the door opening so as to allow I! for swelling or expansion, as will later more fully appear.

Upon the bevels of the walls I, 2, 3 and 4 of the doorway are secured weather strips 6, l, 8 and 9 of the character shown in my said co-pending 10 application, in which the contact portions of the weather strips are resiliently maintained at an angle so as to project into the doorway by suitable clamping means, so that the same will only be subjected to deflection'instead of compression 1 by the door when the same is closed.

According to this invention, strips of suitable material ii], I I, I2 and iii are secured to the inner surfaces of the walls of the doorway adjacent the free edges of the weather strips. These strips 50 50, ll, 12 and 13 have flanges M at their edges adjacent the weather strips, as shown in Figures 3 and 4, that overhang the free margins of the weather strips and limit their deflecting movements into the doorway. However, the flanges 26 M are sufliciently spaced from the walls of the doorway to allow for the desired deflecting movement when the door is closed. These strips 10, H, l2 and I3 also cooperate with the free edges of the weather strips to exclude the weather.

The free edges of the Weather strips are thus protected against coming into contact with baggage or material passing through the doorway, and they are so housed to be more or less protected from moisture from within. While the 35 free edges of the weather strips are shown in contacting relation with their respective strips, it will be understood that suflicient clearance may be provided for free deflecting movements of the edges of the strips, if desired.

With reference to Figures 1 and 4, it will be observed that the door 5 has considerable clearance l5, with respect to the walls of the doorway, and this clearance allows the door to swell or expand. When the door expands, the weather strips will be further deflected and no severe compression will be likely to result that would bind or wedge the door against being manually opened.

However, this weather proofing structure may be used upon any form of door. It is admirably adapted for automobile doors in that it eliminates the noise arising from slamming the door as now occurs. In other words, it produces anoiseless action in closing a door.

It will be appreciated that according to this invention, the resilient deflecting portions of the weather strips are housed and protected for limited deflecting movements so that they cannot readily be interfered with by objects passing through the doorway. At the same time, they are protected from moisture from within, especially when used for refrigerator doors, and avoid the noise heretofore encountered in closing doors.

I am aware that many changes may be made and numerous details of construction may be varied through a wide range without departing from the principles of this invention, and I, therefore, do not purpose limiting the patent granted hereon otherwise than is necessitated by the prior art.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a weather proofing structure for doorways, a frame member having a face, an initially flat strip of fabric backed sponge rubber having a base portion, means for clamping said base portion against said frame for causing the free contacting portion to be deflected at an angle into the doorway, and means for limiting such deflecting movement and imparting a transverse curvature to the free contacting portion, comprising a protecting member secured to said frame in substantially abutting relation with the free end of the deflectable portion of said weather strip and having a flange overlapping the free margin of the weather strip for limiting its deflective movement arising from said clamping means and protecting the same from moisture from within the structure having the doorway, said protecting member cooperating with said weather strip to more effectively seal the doorway.

2. In a weather proofing structure for doorways including a frame member having an elongate associated member with a lip portion inwardly spaced from the adjacent surface of the frame, an initially flat strip of resilient material arranged to have one of its edges disposed under the lip portion of said member, and means for securing the other edge margin against the adja cent inner surface of the frame, said means being arranged to cause deflection of the unsecured portion of the strip towards said lip, engagement of the deflected portion with the lip acting to impart a transverse curvature to said strip.

3. In a weather proofing structure for doorways, a frame member having a face, a resilient strip of rubber, means securing one edge margin of the strip to said face, said means acting to deflect the unsecured or free marginal edge of the strip at an angle to said face to form a deflectablc flap portion, a protecting member secured to said face in abutting relation with the edge of the flap portion and having a flange on its outer margin for overlapping the edge of the flap portion for limiting its angular deflection and imparting an outward bow thereto, whereby an associated closure member for the doorway upon engaging the bowed portion will cause inward distortionof the strip at a location between its 

